McLelland; Hjorth; and Bell: Week 11
According to Bell, what it means to be mobile has distinct cultural meanings. This week we explore case studies of phone usage, function, and history in Asia. While the McLelland article brought up a lot of research discussed in previous reading in Castells et al., Hjorth and Bell introduced me to mobile media and detailed ethnographies of the Asian cell phone market. First, I will talk about the McLelland article and then I will move to Hjorth and Bell.
In the McLelland article it is interesting how it revolves around the relationship between what McLelland was trying to teach students about the interrelationship between new technology and society/culture. McLelland quotes, “I try to encourage them to consider that technologies have a history and that the meanings underlying their deployment are highly cultural specific.” Interestingly enough, McLelland had some difficulty doing this because the students or permanently “wired socialites” could not remember a time before the mobile phone. Then McLelland moved to talking about how it was important for students to think about different technologies and how they are used and represent different geographical locations via case studies. It is mentioned that Castells talks about the difficulty of this task but it is still clear to researchers that technologies do have a significant effect in different regions. Then McLelland provides us with a collection of sources to help look at regional similarities as well as differences of the uptake of mobile communication. Fortunately for us our book by Castells et al. is the most useful source. In the chapter we read from our Castells book, it is important to note the 4 trends identified for mobile communication in different countries. Another source is Ito et al.’s comprehensive analysis of mobile telephony in Japan. This research talks about the Keitai and explores its design, functions, users and meanings. There is a focus on its role as “an artifact”. Other researchers, Matsunaga, Beck and Wade, focus on business models, policy developments, and technical/management issues (McLelland). Ling and Pedersen as well as Kim look at the emergence of the mobile phone in the Philippines. What is interesting about the Philippines is the idea that the sudden access to new technologies can be seen as revolutionary. With each of these sources or collections of texts McLelland also hopes to show how mobile communication will impact notions of time and space.
Hjorth looks at the emphasis of “electronic individualism” in Japan and how the mobile gaming platform “dominates”. In South Korea there is a strong desire for online multiplayer games and has had influence on gaming and mobile technology in mainland China. Hjorth uses South Korea to look at the “participatory culture” and the rise of mobile media and urban gaming. Then Hjorth asks the question, “How do projects around mobile technologies and play seek to provide a space for rethinking the notions, practices, and politics of mobility?” Hjorth addresses this question by looking at how mobility has been conceptualized, looking at mobile media within technocultures, focusing on South Korea and the contextualization of the sociocultural space, and the political dimensions of mobile technology. Some of the concepts I found interesting in this article was the arguments about global media and the role of the local. According to Hjorth, “Through the role of location, based gaining in different contexts, and resistance toward that technology we can gain a sense of contemporary localities.” In each location, mobile gaming means something different. Furthermore, I also thought it was interesting when Hjorth discussed the many forms and practices of mobile media. I was left understanding that mobile media is a ubiquitous and pervasive technology. And Hjorth leaves us with the argument that, “ the mobile phone communicates upon various levels-both literally (in the form of visual, textual, and aural mobile media) as well as symbolically (as a cultural artifact reflecting the user’s identity as well as social and cultural capital).”
Finally, Bell opens up with the fact that the People’s Republic of China is the largest market for mobile phones. However, even though China is the largest market, the Asian cell phone market in general has had rapid growth. This growth can be attributed to high mobility, government regulation, a need to replace poor existing telephony, urbanization, good cell phone coverage, and efficient calling plans and pricing. According to Bell, “the impact of calling plans and pricing policies should not be underestimated.” Bell’s research project has focused on the ways that cultural practices shape people’s relationships with new communication technologies in urban Asia. Bell looks at the shaping of this relationship in regards to sites of production, consumption and resistance in urban life (more specifically where the cell phones are deployed, consumed, regulated, rejected, and naturalized). Bell talks about how social mobility is “critical” to the rapid growth of mobile phones and identifies four ways in which mobile phones function as cultural objects. Mobile phones function as cultural objects by being objects of communication, outlets to seek information, forms of identity politics, and sites of anxiety and control. Bell also explores the specific functions of cell phones. These functions are listed as but not exhausted to: talking, organizing co-presence, safety, and business/work related activities. The mobile phone also creates opportunities for location-based services (which we have a lot of knowledge of already!). However, while there are all these useful functions of cell phones Bell points out that they have also been blamed for divorce rates, teenage suicides, and government overthrow. It seems that the mobile phone can have an incredible impact on various aspects of life and like Bell points out I am too left questioning, “what is the cell phone”? To Bell, “they are more than pieces of technology, they are also constellations of social and cultural practice”, but I am still trying to figure out what it is to me. I think it is something I will try to explore in my wiki as well!
by Kimberly A Burke